Our Official Memo (February 5th 2010) was written in response to the Faculty of Humanities' News Release: New Opportunities for students in the Arts(February 3rd, 2010)
Publicly accessible: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=6597
*Administration in the Faculty of Humanities FAILED to provide an open and public forum. Rather they posted a Frequently Asked Questions document on the Humanities' website. (mid-February, 2010)
Publicly accessible: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/FAQFineArts.pdf

Official Memo: New Opportunities or Empty Promises?

STOP PHASING OUT THE MCMASTER ART HISTORY PROGRAM!

An official memo was issued by the Faculty of Humanities on February 3rd 2010 on McMaster’sDaily News. A phasing out of the "stand-alone" Art History Program at McMaster Universitywas proposed. As of today, this proposal is still pending approval from the Senate.

As current students and alumni of the program, we have been “strengthening ourcommitment” to fully decipher the vague details of the official memo. However, most of us stillremain unsuccessful.

The Faculty of Humanities wants to demonstrate their commitment to Fine Arts at theundergraduate and graduate level by proposing a reformatted BFA program and potentiallycreating a new MFA (Master of Fine Arts) program. As strong supporters of the arts, weencourage and fully support McMaster’s new plans to create new opportunities in BFA andMFA programs but, we insist you keep the Art History Program at McMaster intact andcontinue to provide additional support.

A minor in Art History is not a sufficient compromise! A minor in the discipline does not meetthe admission requirements of the majority of graduate and professional programs in Art, ArtHistory and Design disciplines, and the decision to propose it as an alternative is highlyuninformed. Based on statistics from a recent Art History Program Review in 2008-2009, 62% ofalumni who participated in the survey had pursued post-graduate studies after McMaster (ArtHistory Review* 2009, p. 80). If the decision to phase the Art History program is finalized,students will no longer be eligible for acceptance into a Master’s of Art History program (amongMANY others—never mind a PhD!) since they will lack the basic requirements of an Honoursundergraduate degree in Art History. On a side note: this program has a track record ofproducing graduates who have attended prestigious international universities and programsincluding Harvard, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Christie’s toname a few.

During the extensive Art History Program Review in 2009, the External Review Committee (fourmembers from diverse concentrations) stated in p. 1 of their report that:

Major strengths of the Art History programme include the quality of the faculty and studentsand their commitment to creating and sustaining the best possible environment for learning. Inthis, they meet McMaster University’s mission and vision to “inspire and support a passion for learning” alongside “a commitment to excellence, and to integrity and teamwork.

The panel commended the McMaster Art History Program by stating that:

Indicators of quality for the faculty include their excellent teaching evaluations, high quality research programmes and productivity and dedication to service. Indicators of quality for the students include their successful and timely completion of their degrees, number of awardsgarnered, success in applying to graduate programmes and success in their chosen employmentfields. In all these categories, the students are very successful. The programme should be lauded for the fact that overall enrolments in Art History have significantly increased over the past three years. This, in itself, is evidence of its high quality. (Art History External Reviewers Report*, 2009, p1)

*Please contact macarthistory@gmail.com if you would like access to this .pdf report and other recent reports which containstatistics and testimonials about Mac Art History.

Given this reputation, enrolment statistics and positive comments, the decision to phase outthe Honours and Joint Honours degree in Art History comes as a shock to us and it is very clearthat it is not driven by academic integrity but by financial viability. It is no surprise that theofficial memo issued by the University fails to deliver any solid reasoning behind thetermination of this program. This will be a serious loss for the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA)and the Hamilton Art Gallery (AGH), where an upper-year internship course was being test-runin 2008 to provide Art History students, who are interested in seriously pursuing gallery andmuseum work, with much needed practical experience.

If phasing out Art History is approved by the Senate, McMaster will be the first University inOntario, with an established and Fine Art and Art History Department, to reduce the Art Historydiscipline to a minor. This decision will have severe consequences for prospective and currentArt History students who will most likely to seek an undergraduate degree in Art History fromanother University which demonstrates a greater commitment to the arts.

We demand to know how this “transformation of programs” will benefit McMaster’s ArtHistory students and how this decision is providing “new opportunities in the arts” for futureArt History students. Any quantifiable data that has influenced the administration to put forththis outrageous proposal to phase out the Art History Program, SHOULD and MUST be publiclyshared with all students and faculty.

On a personal note: we, as Art History students have devoted a lot of time, money and energyto finance our undergraduate education and we would like more concrete answers as to whyour degree in Art History from McMaster University will no longer be considered reputable. Wecan assure you that SOTA and the Faculty of Humanities are slowly, but surely losing oursupport.